Vestibular prosthesis

Hi All

Just sharing a snippet of a news article about researchers attempting to develop a vestibular prosthesis. I believe the condition they are referring to treating is complete bilateral vestibular loss.


Electrical implant helps balance disorder

BALTIMORE, Aug. 8 (UPI) – U.S. medical scientists say an electrical implant tested in animals has shown promise for treating long-term unsteadiness and blurry vision.

Hearing and balance experts at Johns Hopkins University said the device partly restored damaged or impaired sense of balance in the lab animals.

Although human testing of the so-called multi-channel vestibular prosthesis remains a few years away, the scientists said such a device – partially implanted in the inner ear – might aid the 30,000 U.S. citizens who suffer from profound loss of inner ear balance that results in unsteadiness, disequilibrium or wobbly vision.

The Hopkins study – conducted using chinchillas because their inner ear function is well studied – is “proof of concept that we can restore three-dimensional sensation of head movement with a multichannel vestibular prosthesis,” said Dr. Charles Della Santina, director of the university’s Vestibular Neuroengineering Laboratory.

The research was initially reported in the June issue pf Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, a journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Adam

Thanks Adam, that sounds hopeful.